The Cages in the Sky
by WitchhPrincess
Summary: 79 years ago the world was destroyed by a disease which made blood congeal and killed almost the entire world. When an Alien race helps regenerate the population, any outlying immunities are seemingly exterminated. Can Elizabeta survive in a world where the care givers of the world want her dead, but just dont know it? Dystopian Human AU, Minor AusHun later PruHun ***T for stuff***
1. Blood

A/N: T for mild refrences to intercourse in the doctor part XD

_Running up a staircase, I could feel my heart beating in my throat. As I saw the top, I saw the fire escape door was locked. Quickly, I launched myself at the bar and it swung open. My feet kept pounding on the concrete as I ran across the roof. _

_Everything below the roof was on fire. _

_The city was burning, the building was burning._

_That was when I saw him where I always saw him. Cold, silver hair but red, crimson like the flames caressing my legs. The moment almost froze and he stepped towards me. I felt the pain in my burning leg amplify as his cool skin touched my warm, red face. He then smiled, and then everything faded to black._

"Elizabeta! ELIZABETA!" I could hear Kat screeching at me, shaking the chrome bunk bed. I shuddered awake, my leg that I swear was on fire a second ago cool against the metal bars.

"Wh-" I began

"You had another nightmare." She sighed, sitting on her bunk below me. Natalya and Lily were sitting up in their bunks the other side of the room, sleepily looking over at me. Lily looked more concerned than the girl sleeping in the bunk above her, who seemed kinda angry.

"Again?" she asked me. I exhaled softly. "You should go see someone about this, Liza."

"I don't know." I blinked, swinging down from the bunk to the wardrobe and swinging it open.

"Maybe Nat's right?" Kat asked. I shook my head.

"I don't want them to call me insane or anything. Another day and we're out of here okay?" I hissed to my room mates. The four of us were more like sisters. Lumped together as newborns and raised in the same room, if one of us had a problem all of us had a problem.

79 years ago the world was destroyed by a disease called Influxlin. Minor cases made you bleed under your nails or cough up blood. Major cases made you bleed from every orifice, your eyes, ears, mouth, even the roots of your hair. Your insides turned into a congealed red mush, your body to jelly.

79 years ago a race of highly intelligent aliens decided to take over the dead world, before discovering almost a 1600th of the population remained. 1600th of the population were immune. About 4.3 millions - less than the population of Hungary, which is where the aliens say I was born. Of course, in the remains of the old country.

The aliens, called Dathroka's, decided to repopulate the world with humans, and for us to forever be in their debt. We'd be a colony, but 79 years ago the remaining people were too weak to fight, and signed a treaty allowing the Dathroka's to own us for the rest of eternity. In return, all newborns would be taken from their mothers and raised on a ship orbiting the earth. 2 ships - one for boys, one for girls. On your 18th year on the ship, you were tested for any higher level of immunity, any thing special. Nobody ever had anything different, except for one boy who's red blood cells had been shaped like squares. He was taken for testing and never seen again. |I didn't want anyone else to know about the nightmare that I'd been having for nearly 14 years as then I might get dragged in for extra testing. If/when you come up normal, as 99.99999% have been, you're set up with someone who you'd never met before, sent to earth and told to start repopulating. You're usually set with someone from an area similar to you, given a house, given a job, given a life. You can go meet the parents you'd never met, meet the older siblings you didn't know existed. Have kids of your own and send them up to this floating cage. Its a vicious cycle, to repopulate an already flawed world.

Slipping my grey uniform on for the day, the dark red stripe down the side told any passersby I was in my final year. The Red, White and Green stripes on my left breast told people where in the world I was from. The other three also slipped out of bed and into their grey dresses. The cut was an unflattering knee length, with full sleeves. Paired with a jacket with the same stripes as my dress and dark boots, it'd always looked horrible on me. All four of us pulled our hair back with black alice bands and made our way out the door and towards command. On the way down, we ran into the girls from the room next to us. If the girls from 22161 were my sisters, the girls from 22160 were my cousins. Alice, Amelia, Fantine and Maddy. Amelia and Maddy were actually sisters, "twins" as the Dathroka told them. The two of them looked similar, blonde hair with bright eyes. Alice and Fantine were also blonde, but those two bickered alot and almost always tried to not get associated with each other. Tomorrow was "pairing day, where we met our future husbands. Today was "testing day", where they tested us to see what our bodys were like. If we passed the tests, which were incredibly likely, overnight a pair would be formed and tomorrow we'd be joined. The eight of us made our way to a bench on the outside of the atrium - a huge, high ceilinged room with windows looking out to the dark space around us; with the blue and green planet to the left of us and a bright white rock to the right – the moon. I'd always wanted to learn about the big, chunk of rock we saw on a regular basis, but our teacher, Miss Europe, told us that our job was to learn things like cooking, sewing and health. I liked health the best. As the room filled, the only "male" I'd ever seen walked onto the stage at the front. His name was Roma, and he was the human race's ambassador to the Dathroka.  
"Hello, beautiful girls." He greeted, smiling. "Today as you know is a very important day! As we call your name, please enter which door lights up and go through. Your tester will meet you inside. This might take a while, but if you stay patient things will run smoothly. Once you're done, you may head back to your room, pack whatever items you may have, and then go to the communal areas to do chores. Tomorrow, you will meet here at 6am to fly to the middle ship, between us and your future husbands. You will then join them and travel to earth, where you will help regenerate the human race." He smiled all throughout the speech. "Now, let us begin." He opened up an envelope and cleared his throat. "Maria 22562" A blonde haired girl stood and walked to a door on the left that lit up. "Katyusha 22161" Kat stood, shaking and made her way to the door next to her. It was completely random.  
It was 3 hours before "Elizabeta 22161" was called. By then, only me, Fantine and Lily remained. They waved me off as I stumbled towards the room recently vacated by "Isabel 22568". I pushed open the door, slipped inside and a man in a spinny chair spun and faced me. He had bright, blue eyes and slicked back blonde hair.  
"Hallo, I'm Ludwig Bielschmidt and I'll be your tester today." He smiled. I shivered. "Come, take a seat, Elizabeta." I sat on the large chair in the middle of the pristine, white room. "Now, what do you know about what's going to happen to you?"  
"I know that you're going to test me, and then tomorrow I get married to whoever is my best match, right?" I blinked  
"Good. Do you know how to repopulate?"  
"…No…?" I blinked, the same tone I'd had before  
"Ahh, your husband will know exactly what to do. He will go inside you, and then 9 months later a baby will come out." He answered quietly. I nodded.  
"Do you know about the disease?"  
"Yes."  
"And what you should report if you spot it?"  
"Yes."  
"What should you report?"  
"Coughing of blood, bleeding under nails, any bleeding from no cut."  
"Smart girl." Ludwig grinned. "Now, I'm going to take a blood sample and then we'll test it, then you can go." He moved closer to the desk. "You may want to shut your eyes." He warned. I nodded, shutting my eyes. I felt a sharp pain but after that nothing else, opening my eyes I saw a needle extracting some blood from my arm. "Now I just smooth it out onto this, and we get a result." The doctor smiled, pouring my red liquid onto a white disk connected to the computer.  
His eyes widened, and he quickly wiped up the white disk and unplugged the computer from the wall.  
"Whats wrong?" I breathed.  
"You…you have an abnormal result."  
I felt the blood rush to my ears.  
"W-what..?" I exhaled.  
"Yes, you have double the amount of Influxo acid." He breathed. "My brother had an abnormal result too, and I never saw him again." He sighed. I felt tears welling up in my eyes. Ludwig stood in front of me. "22161 look at me." I raised my green eyes to his blue ones. "I've erased the sample from your file, that's why I unplugged the computer. You can't tell anyone about this. Ever." He growled. I nodded. He walked back to the computer, rebooted the system and started typing. "I'll hand enter the details. I've disconnected the reader from the computer which means I'll have to hand enter my next twenty patients, but if it saves you then I'll do it."  
"Why are you doing this?"  
"So that I can save your life" He breathed. "No go on, get out of here." I stood and made my way out, turning to thank him on my way out. "One last thing." He asked.  
"Anything?"  
"I saved your life. If you can find out where my brother ended up, I'd save it tenfold." I nodded. "His name was Gilbert 34123, or now known as Bielschmidt. You get a surname when you leave, I don't know about him though." I opened the door silently.  
"Thank you, Doctor." I sighed as I left.

A/N: Thanks for reading this far! Reviews and Follows much appreciated ^_^


	2. Silk

_"You're so close." a voice chuckled in the back of my mind. My heeled feet were clanging against metal, the patent white shoes slowing me down. I kicked them off and raced, white silk billowing out behind me as my cold feet slapped onto the corrugated metal. "Not close enough." it smirked as I rounded the corner and saw the silver haired man raise his fist to the sky and the metal beneath me started melting._  
_"Hey-Help! HELP! HEL-" I screamed._

Again, I woke up with Kat shaking me.  
"Seriously go see someone." Nat groaned.  
"Well tomorrow morning my husband will have to, wont he?" I blinked. We all stilled at the sound. _Husband. _The word sounded alien, more alien than Dathroka. I looked at the ground. "Where are our bags?" I asked.  
"Someone took them and all the rest of our belongings in the night." Lily whispered. "It's funny, I don't want to leave here..." she added, staring at the wall.  
"Funny, if 14 year old you had heard that then I'm sure she'd have slapped you." I giggled.  
"What are we supposed to wear?" Kat blinked.  
"Look in the wardrobe." Nat pointed over to the place where before hung suits of grey, now hung swathes of white fabric. Kat walked across as Natalya and I swung our legs down and dropped to the floor. Lily slowly slipped out of bed, following suite.  
"These must be new clothes." Kat blinked. "Wedding clothes?" She asked, picking up the one with the yellow and blue stripe on the left breast. Lily and Nat grabbed theres confusedly as I paled. White silk. An image of the fabric swirling around my bare feet as I ran across the corrugated metal flashed in my mind and I paled. "And shoes! How impracticable." Kat added, lifting up a pair of high heeled white shoes.  
"Very... white." Lily blinked. Natalya grunted, before shrugging her nightgown over her shoulders and pulling the white gown over her tall frame. She turned back to us.  
"It's soft. Softer than before." She murmured, stroking the skirt with an absent smile I'd never seen her possess. As my other room mates slipped into their dresses, even the thought of mine made me feel physically sick.  
"Liza." Kat murmered. I blinked up at her. She gestured towards the dress. "You need to wear it." I swallowed hard.  
"Do I?" She nodded. I sighed, before pulling up my grey dress and pulling down the white one and slipping into the high shoes.

We all waited in the atrium as our names were called.  
"Once your name's-a called-a, you will walk towards the other corridor and have a veil clipped in-a." A veil seems to be a piece of flimsy white netting clipped into your hair, covering your face. Roma was smiling broadly. "Come on, the quicker we get this done the quicker you'll be married!" I groaned. So many changes would take place in the space of 24 hours.  
I was the 7th to be called, and as my friends around me waved goodbye, Lily was called immediately after me. The two of us walked together, the soft fabric floating as we stepped towards the door. After the veils were clipped in, we were lead to a seat in some sort of adjoining craft.  
"I'm scared." I whispered to Lily. She nodded.  
"Same, but I'm sure everything will be alright."  
Four hours passed of us sitting there tensely. Soon, the whole craft was filled with scared eighteen year olds in matching dresses. The last person to sit down was Alice, who looked annoyed. Roma bounced in, and the doors slid shut. He made his way to a seat at the front and clicked some buttons, before we felt the ship start to move.

For all of us, we'd been on that satellite our whole lives. But floating across seemed different, almost painful. Like our whole lives as we knew it were being torn away and we were being artificially injected into ones we should've had naturally. Roma turned to us.  
"Now, when-a we dock and the door behind me opens up-a, you will walk out in the order you were called and wait next to your partner, facing forwards at who ever is-a getting married." He smiled. A sea of blank faces responded. He sighed, and turned away again.

Once we were docked, we followed his orders and walked slowly down the corridor towards a room where no doubt our husbands would be waiting for us.  
"Liza." Lily whispered in my ear as we walked.  
"Yeah?"  
"What if it's the silver man?" she asked. I blinked. I'd never thought it through - what if the silver haired man in my dreams was my husband? I blinked and blushed, and Roma swung open the doors. Him walking in front, the line of brides passing taller black clothed beings - I guess these are males like Roma. One of these was to be my husband. I looked closer to the front, knowing the seventh man was mine. I swallowed back disappointment when I saw no silver haired men in the crowd, and my Husband was dark haired. I made my way to him and looked up at him slightly.

His dark hair was slicked back, a tuft escaping the comb at the front making him seem more human. Glasses adorned his nose, similar to Alice's and a small mole sat on his otherwise clear, porcelain skin. I stared forwards.  
"In the light of the sun of Dathrok." An old dathrokian priest called, standing in front of the couple at the front - two short, dark haired people who seemed almost terrified. "I name these two as man and wife." he placed his hand on top of their clasped ones. "To regenerate their earth and to bring light to the Dathrokian people." he removed his hand, and the two were ushered into a small pod off the side of the room. Only now did i notice them, hundreds lining the walls. As soon as they were inside, it was shot off and the pair were sent hurtling to earth.  
When it was my turn, I was trembling. "In the light o-" he began, and as soon as the word light left his mouth a sun beam hit me through the window above him. It illuminated me, and I felt warmed and calmed for a moment. "-kian people." he finished as my thoughts came back to earth. The tall man was now leading me into a pod and I looked back at Lily, being married off to a man who looked eerily similar to her.  
As we stepped into the pod and the door shut, he turned to me.  
"Name." he asked. His voice has a nasally quality to it.  
"Elizabeta." I replied. He nodded.  
"Roderich." He circled me like a vulture. "My, you're prettier than I thought." his cool fingers brushed my back. "And here I was thinking nobody would be worthy of me." Mentally my mind screamed how my results weren't actually my results, but this guy seemed alright.

Atleast, that's what I thought.

A/N: Thanks for reading! R&amp;R's are like fuel ;)


	3. Meadow

A/N: So I wrote this and was incredibly happy with it and then BOOM I lost it ugh.

Warning: some mentions of sex/martial rape, in the italic parts (intro/outro) so those parts will be like, T+ if that makes sense. A bit more sensitive but not full blown lemon. I know Austria's OOC, but he's pretty much been raised by Aliens who told him he has to repopulate the world. So ya.

_It hurt. My husband said it was how you create a child, what we were put together to do. I didn't know he'd do it within an hour of us being married. I didn't know I'd want to die in the process._

_The pod was like a little room. We'd been in there for hours, and I was now lying in the large bed in the corner. There was also a sofa and a table filled with food, which my husband was currently sitting at. There was also a Latrine in the corner, behind a large screen. Beside the sofa lay the tattered remains of my wedding dress, and next to the bed were 2 cases - one of which contained my possessions from the satellite, the others holding Roderich's. From my case I'd taken out one of my grey night dresses. Roderich and sniffed at the grey clothes, obviously not caring about his past.  
"We'll get new clothes on earth." he informed me. I nodded silently, curling up in the the sheets. "Elizabeta, why wont you talk to me?" I curled up against the wall, my face leaning against the cold metal. A clock on the other side of the wall was counting to when we would reach earth - 15 hours 17 minutes remaining. Enough time for a long nap. He huffed and turned back to whatever he was eating. My mind wandered to my torn up wedding dress, the swathes of silk soft to the touch. Such a waste..._

"Liza, wake up." the silver man grinned above me, yet lying atop of me. I rolled over, away from him and realized I wasn't in that soft wedding night bed, I was in a field.  
"W-where am I?" I asked.  
"Dreaming, sugar." he replied lazily. I sat up, I was cloaked in the white silk from when I last saw him, but it was torn.  
"W-why are you always in my dreams?"  
"Your dress is torn."  
"Why are you always in my dream?" I glared, repeating my question. He chuckled.  
"Elizabeta, I've walked your dreams and you've walked mine since both of us breathed the same breath." he murmered, cryptically. I sat up, looking at him.  
"Who are you?"  
"I'm an anomaly. The blood that runs through my veins isn't normal blood. I mean look at me, what 20 year old has silver hair? Or red eyes?" he growled, and I knew then who he was. "I'm different. And because of that, I have more control. But they took what control I had when they put me in that testing facility. My only control now is my dreams." he muttered.  
"Gilbert..." I whispered, reaching out a hand to cup his palm.  
"I'm dreaming alot. Whenever I'm dreaming, they're testing me." he ranted, obviously getting in pain. "I'm only awake an hour a day if I'm lucky."  
"Well, you don't look that bad." I said, stroking his cheek.  
"This is just dream me. Dream me can manipulate things..." he whispered, and stretched his hand out onto my shoulder. The dress stitched itself back together.  
"That's incredible." I smiled.  
"You might be able to do things like that too, with your abnormality." he smiled. I froze.  
"How did you know?"  
"You're the only other person who's dreams I've been able to walk." he smiled softly. "Your blood isn't pure either." he said softly. I blinked. "Give it a try..." he encouraged.  
Focusing on my dress, it pixelated till it was lying in the tall grass and I was in a dress of weeds and stems and natural things I'd never seen before. Then, in the wind they fluttered off my skin, peeling away until I was left in my usual grey uniform.  
Gilbert chuckled. "Of all the things, why this?"  
"They remind me of a simpler time." I smiled softly.  
"I can see you in green. And maybe brown too." he placed his other hand on my shoulder and I looked down, and wide eyed I watched shades of grass green swirl from where his hand was, covering the shirt and seeping in, changing the colour. My trousers were softening into supple leather, and my clunky black shoes became comfy, dark brown boots. I smiled.  
"This is nice..." I said, standing up and spinning around, before the ground started to shake.  
"ELIZABETA!" Roderich's voice screeched through the sky. I froze.  
"I've got to go..." I said to Gilbert. The corners of my vision were fading. "LUDWIG'S LOOKING FOR YOU!" I screamed, suddenly remembering as everything there faded to black...

_I shuddered as I woke to my husband shaking my shoulder.  
"Did you sleep well?" he asked climbing into the bed beside me. I nodded. "You were twitching in your sleep." he told me. I shrugged as he wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear. "Time for round two..." I nodded and sat up slowly, tears stinging my eyes, my red tinted green orbs catching on the tattered dress, lying beside the sofa._


	4. Soulmate

**I don't own hetalia, T for mentions of sex, unhappy marriage and I think that's all for this chapter.**

"You will cook and clean everyday, and once we have children you will care for them too. As the wife of a concert pianist, you are expected to be meek and sensible as well as compassionate and loving." Roderich barked for the tenth time in our 3 day long marriage - he'd catch me lying in the garden, or admiring a painting. As he circled me like a vulture. I nodded. "Good." he replied. "Now, today we are travelling to a city called Budapest to meet your family." he rubbed a gloved hand against my smooth cheek, having spent a vast fortune on lavish clothing. "Don't make me wait, and scrub up nice." he added, walking up the staircase so he could change. I followed him, walking to a separate room where all my clothes are. On one side, rows upon rows of silk, chiffon, tulle. Heels thinner than a rose's thorn. Silly, impractical clothing. On the other, work dresses and flat brown shoes. Green skirts and red skirts and white blouses and black waist coats and black work gloves. I'd have loved to have just stayed in that grey uniform, clinging to the past where myself wasn't illegal. Instead, my husband had burnt them in the field behind our garden. He'd also sent my wedding dress to be mended in town, which I was partial for. I wasn't sure if I should dress nice as in what I liked, or what my husband liked. In the end I settled on a long red skirt, white blouse and a soft black waistcoat to tye it all together. I slipped on a pair of brown boots, which had the impractical heel most Viennese women had sported. Roderich raised an eyebrow as I stepped outside.  
"It's what I would wear. When we meet your family, you can dress me." I muttered, looking down. He sighed before dragging me out of the house and towards the car.

It was strange. Back in the sky we'd always been told we'd meet with our parents, that it would be a joyous occasion. I didn't expect this moment to be the one where I found out I had a twin brother. He was called Heracles, and he was married to a small Asian woman. Sitting around a large dinner table, afternoon tea spread out in front of us and a vase of tulips set in the center.  
"I never knew you existed..." I breathed.  
"Same here..." he replied, drifting off.  
"I am sorry." His wife, Sakura replied. "He likes to sleep." I vaguely remembered her from around the satellite, but I'd never spoken to her.  
"It's okay, it might explain why she's so energetic." Roderich piped up. I glared across at him.  
"Children, children please." My mother, a slim woman with olive skin named Lovina glared.  
"Heracles! Wake up!" My father, a tall man with dark eyes barked. He was called Sadik. My brother sat up from opposite me, murmering something about cats which made Sakura blush. I sighed, why didn't Roderich and I have that...  
"You two have 4 brothers, 2 younger and 2 older." Lovina blinked, stirring her tea and eating...a tomato?  
"Igor and Vladimir are older." Sadik added, sipping his tea. "And Nicos and Fazil are younger."  
"It's strange to see my daughter...all grown up." Lovina sighed.  
"You've also seen 3 of your sons, tulip!" Sadik chuckled, pure compassion in his eyes.  
"Yeah..." Lovina looked back, hers much colder.

Heracles and Sakura fell asleep on the sofa, and Roderich had spotted a piano and now a sweet melody was filling the halls from three rooms away. My father had gone to smoke outside, and my mother sighed, before looking over at me.  
"Does he treat you right, Liza?"  
"Liza?"  
"S-sorry, do you like being called something else?" she blinked, blushing hard.  
"No, Liza's fine, Mother." I replied.  
"Does he?"  
"I have to cook and clean. But that's what I was taught to do."  
"Yes, you were taught that. Like I was taught that." She blinked. "But, did you know your father was taught in languages? Vlad in medicine and Igor in physics?"  
"W-what's physics?" I blinked.  
"Heracles in Business, Nicos in Music and Fazil in Mathematics?" she ranted. "Your husband probably in music?" she asked, calming down.  
"Mother, what are you saying?" I asked.  
"I always wanted so much more for me. So much more for you." she cried. "If only I could've raised you by myself...all my children...my six children... each as beautiful as the last." she muttered darkly. "I had a sister." she added, blinking. "Much younger, born by the time I'd left. Before I became pregnant with you two, but after Igor. Her name was Feliciana."  
"Oh."  
"And she's content with the life she has, married to some doctor and giving him blonde haired blue eyed babies called _Beilschmidt._" I flinched. "What?"  
"Nothing." I murmered, looking down.  
"Beilschmidt." she repeated. I stared straight ahead. "O-oh god. You've got it." she whispered, getting up and shutting the door so I was left with my mother.  
"I've got what?"  
"Messed up blood." Lovina hissed. "I never wanted to pass it on to any of you." she cried, holding my face in her hands.  
"W-what?"  
"You know him, don't you?" she asked.  
"Who?" I whispered.  
"Gilbert Beilschmidt."  
I stayed silent.  
"Does he walk your dreams?" she asked. I nodded. "Somebody else walks mine. There's a rumour, that Influxlin was created by the Dathroka so that they could take over the world, but people like us are resilient. So fate binds us with someone else to help us survive - and you can feel them, coursing through your blood. They're your soulmate."  
"Roderich?"  
"Is unlucky he's married to someone else's girl." my mother stroked my hair. "Your soulmate is Gilbert, Eliza."  
"But I don't love him." I sighed. "I don't love either of them..." I whispered.  
"Don't let Roderich hear you say that. But Gilbert's famous, and many of us dream walkers think that his soulmate will bust him out of the institute they're holding him in."  
"Institute?"  
"Where they keep the terminally sick."  
"Oh." I replied. There was a knock on the door.  
"Elizabeta?" Roderich poked his head through. I turned to him.  
"Yes, Roderich?"  
"We should get going."

On the way home, whether he heard his wife and her mother or not, the dark haired man turned to his wife.  
"I want a baby."  
"As if that wasn't obvious enough..." Elizabeta breathed, remembering the torn dress of her wedding night.  
"No, I mean I will be properly trying from now on." he repeated, his eyes fixed cooly ahead.

**A/N: Sorry Roddy's OOC, hes meant to be becoming a famous concert pianist, so he cant have his wife being the soulmate of the most famous sick people in their world.**


	5. Growth

_A few weeks after the meeting with my parents, I sat staring out the window of Roderich's music room. Yesterday, he'd hired a maid. Yesterday he found out I was pregnant, the news he was waiting for.  
I hadn't dreamed since that day. I was too terrified to. The only blessing with this baby was I now had free time, but I had nothing to do with the spare time  
"Elizabeta, you can sit with me if you like." He called. I stood and walked to perch on the edge of his stall  
"We will only have one child." He muttered as his gloved fingers played on the ivory keys. "I can see you don't like it. If the Dathroka knew that we weren't going to have one there would be consequences."  
"I don't want to carry something for 9 months then lose it. My mother seemed so foreign to me. I don't want that." I muttered looking at my belly. Roderich sighed  
"You just need to sleep." He said, before motioning for me to leave the room. Heading his advice, I began to climb the staircase to our bedroom. The ornate bed with plush feather down beckoned me, and I curled up in its warmth, hoping Gilbert might give me some sanity from his insanity._

"Gilbert!" I called, standing in the field from before. I could hear a strange laugh, almost like a "kesesese" from the tree from the side, and he dropped down  
"Long time no see, frau." He smiled, moving towards me. I smiled  
"I'm pregnant, that's how long it's been."  
"Wow, that pompous piano player finally did it." Gilbert blinked. "Congratulations?"  
"For what? It's not like I'm going to be a mother." I muttered. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them my green dress transformed into a white, comfier sun dress. "My child will get taken away the same way I was. And I'll see them in 18 years and it will be like theyre a stranger."  
"Well, I knew Luddy." Gilbert blinked  
"That reminds me, why haven't you been here?"  
"More like why haven't you been here." Gilbert snorted. "They're only testing me at night now, so I sleep in the day."  
"What even is this testing?" I asked.  
"They want to see what properties I have. And by I, I mean my body. I'll be dead by the end of this, I'm sure." He sighed. "But, then the people might be less susceptible to the infection." He muttered, lying back in the grass.  
"Are the Dathroka the causes behind it?"  
"Yes."  
There was a bittersweet silence  
"I know because they try to infect me with it. That's what a majority of the tests are." He sighed, sitting up. "A nurse told me that since they brought it to the earth, influxlin has been the reason their planet is now a super power. They just wanted a race of slaves."  
"I don't want to be a part of this life." I blinked  
"Well, you'd better get used to it. It's simple – you and Roddy make babies whilst the person you should be with rots away in a hospital."  
"How do you know we should be together?" I asked, tilting my head  
"Well, for one you're here right now. And you're the only person whose dreams I can walk." He sighed, running a hand through my hair. "I can't even walk my brothers. all I know is he married some girl called Feli."  
"Wait, Feli?" I tilted my head. "My Aunt is called Feli."  
"Who knows, maybe you're my niece in law." Gilbert laughed. I grinned.  
"I could mention to Roderich that I want to visit my family, and check it out for you?" I asked, tilting my head like a child. Gilbert smiled.  
"That would be incredible, thanks Eliza!" Gilbert wrapped his arms around me and I giggled, long forgetting the troubles of the waking word, my stoic husband and the baby I loved more than the Dathroka would let me.


	6. Death

"So, you want to meet an aunt you've never met?" Roderich frowned.  
"Yes."  
"Why? Did you not say yesterday that your mother was foreign to you?" _But she has someone in her dreams too, it's different…_ I thought, watching him carefully.  
"I thought this would be a good way to learn more about my family." I smiled. Roderich sighed.  
"Fine, we can invite them to my upcoming recital next month." He relented, returning to gently playing the piano.  
"I was hoping I could go…tomorrow? Or the day after?" I replied. He looked up at me as if I'd just insulted him.  
"Who would you even go with?"  
"My mother…" I murmured. Roderich frowned.  
"As long as nothing happens to the baby, you may do what you wish."  
"Thank you." I responded, moving out of the room to get out of his way. I walked back to the kitchen to write to my mother, asking her if we could visit Aunt Feliciana – the aunt I never met. After handing it to the Maid for her to post, I spent the rest of the day wandering around.

The house was bigger than the satellite. Roderich's parents had both died before he was returned to earth, so he inherited their whole wealth. It was a lovely place to live, but it still felt unreal. I felt like if I touched anything, I'd ruin it.

The next day, my mother's reply was short and simple.

_Elizabeta  
Why do you want to go see your Aunt? As you really want to go we will, but we will discuss this in person more.  
Mama_

Her signing of "Mama" made me feel, weird. I was technically now a "Mama", but I didn't feel like one. I don't suppose Mother feels like one either.

When she picked me up, I was surprised to see her driving, as Roderich has his own driver.  
"Now, if this meeting is about your little boyfriend in your dreams, be warned that Dr Bielschmidt doesn't give out much info." She cursed as we pulled up to the house.  
"Okay, Mama." I replied.  
"He's a potato loving idiot, but my sister is happy. I mean its not like she got much say in it. They're both around your age, actually, a year or so older." She murmered. "I don't get how his brother is in your dreams though, he'd be about 5 years older than you."  
"I don't know either". I sighed, as the car came to a stop.

"Lovina!" a small, almost identical version of my mother jumped at her as we entered the house. The large, imposing marble building looked out of place amongst the trees, but it was a beautiful house non-the-less.  
"Hello Feli." She replied. The lighter-haired version of Mama looked at me.  
"You must be Elizabeta!" she squeaked and jumped at me. I chuckeld.  
"You must be Aunt Feli." I smiled, and she nodded. "Yeah! I made lunch for us all, so come right in!"

We entered the large hallway, and I gazed up at the high ceiling. Taking off my shoes, I followed my Aunt and my Mother through to the dining area. The table was laden with pasta and sauces, meats, vegetables, even a large bowl of salad sat on the side.  
"Feli, you idiot, this is too much food for three of us."  
"Well, I assumed one that Elizabeta will be pregnant by now, and if not a healthy appetite should help." My mother looked at me.  
"I am pregnant now, Aunt Feli." I replied, but couldn't hide any sadness laced in my words – I'd never wanted children. I didn't want to send a child who should have love and care up to space for eighteen years.  
"Ah! That's lovely!" She laughed. Mama smiled sadly and rested her hand on my arm. She knew as well as I did that this child could easily have the defects.  
"Also, my husband should be coming down any minute!" Aunt Feli shouted, and before too long we heard footsteps clunking down the stairs.

I'd forgotten what the doctor who had saved me from certain death looked like.  
Blonde hair still slicked back, but blue eyes looking dull and tired, he looked at me with interest – like a tiger stalking its prey – when he entered the room.

"So, Liza, Lovi tells me that you're like her." Feli announced midway through our dinner.  
I spluttered.  
"Feli, you idiot! Your husband is right here!" Mama screeched.  
"It's okay, Lovina, I knew already." Ludwig replied.  
"How di-"  
"I'm the reason she even got off the satellite." He added, before turning to me. "If you're pregnant you should know of the high risks it carries – especially as the hospital will want blood samples from you soon. You'll be sent for testing – no doubt your child too. I'll be shot." Feli squeaked when he said that.  
"It wasn't my choice." I grumbled. "Roderich said we should have at least one to keep the Dathroka off our backs."  
Ludwig nodded.  
"Anyway, have you found out any information on my brother yet?"  
"Oh yeah, I'm his soulmate."

* * *

I was standing in the field again. It was cold this time, so I imagined myself in warmer clothing.  
"Gilbert? Where are you?" I called. In the end, I sat on the ground waiting.

Then I saw it. It was as if for a split-second I saw a hospital room. A man on the operating table. An operating wound open, parallel to previous, closed wounds. A man with silver hair.  
"Gilbert!" I screamed, but I was frozen in place. "GILBERT!"  
If he was under, and not here - he wasn't dreaming. He was dead.

* * *

A/N: sorry, I thought this story would just fade into oblivion with the other stories I'd just forgotten about, but here we are!  
I'd like to hope my writing style has evolved a bit since I was 15-16, so if it seems oddly different and hard to follow, I'm sorry!  
This isnt the end though!  
I know if you're thinking "But he's dead? HOW CAN IT PROGRESS?" Well, you'll see. ;)


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